


day 8: free day

by liddie



Series: shance fluff week 2k18 [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Fluff, Gen, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, kitsune!Shiro, tengu!Keith, young!Lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 17:31:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14898927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liddie/pseuds/liddie
Summary: After somehow getting lost in the forest, young!Lance finds an unusual guide back to the park.





	day 8: free day

**Author's Note:**

> a story written for Shance Fluff Week 2k18 
> 
> 'free day' is all the excuse I need to write a Japanese mythology AU and you will have to pry it from my cold dead fingers because kitsune!Shiro is my jam.

Lance stumbles over a crack in the path and trips, knees and palms taking the brunt of the impact from his fall. “Ow, ow,” he mumbles, shifting to sit on the damp earth and flexing his legs out in front of himself.

Sure enough his knees are streaked with dirt, the skin not broken but tender to the touch, just like his hands. Lance bites his lower lip and wipes his palms on his shorts.

The soft rustling of leaves from a bush nearby has the little boy looking up. A few seconds later a furry head pokes through the foliage. The small creature has big, luminous silver eyes and snowy white fur, a pair of vulpine ears twitching to try and shake a small leaf loose. Two red markings are streaked across its cheeks and there's some kind of swirling red symbol on its head.

Staring for a few more seconds Lance sniffs and wipes a sleeve across his nose, leaving a wet trail on the dark green fabric. “Kitty?”

The white fox tilts its head to the side, multiple tails swishing across the dried leaves on the ground.

“Here, kitty kitty,” Lance coos, patting the ground beside him. “I won't hurt you.” His lower lip wobbles when the fox simply stares at him.

When Lance sucks in a shaky breath the fox decides to move. Swiftly it jumps over a fallen branch and walks over to Lance, rubbing against his leg and ducking its head under his hand.

A watery smile makes its way onto Lance's face and he pets the creature, giggling when it jumps into his lap and places its front paws on his chest, leaning up and licking at his chin. “No, Kitty,” he laughs, petting his hand down the smooth fur of its back. “No more kisses.”

The fox makes a soft sound and sits on Lance's thighs, watching him with moonlight eyes. Reaching out Lance takes those big ears between his fingers and rubs them gently. The fox purrs and Lance smiles. “Good kitty.”

After a few minutes the fox jumps down and trots a few steps along the pathway before stopping, turning around to look at Lance. Rubbing at his eyes with the back of his hand Lance gets to his feet and follows the creature. “Where are we going?”

Lance follows the fox through the forest, blue eyes wide when he sees crow after crow sitting in the huge trees they pass. They caw at them every so often and the fox bristles and growls, never straying too far ahead or away from Lance as they continue on.

When his shoelace comes untied Lance trips again, landing hard in the dirt. His eyes water at the sudden pain and his face scrunches up, but he stops when a hand appears in his view.

Looking up Lance sees a man crouched in front of him, his sleeveless white shirt paired with a set of black flowy pants. Dark fabric extends from his wrists to a few inches above his arms, braided red cord crisscrossing over top to hold them in place. His cheeks and forehead have the same markings as the fox, his long hair pulled back in a high ponytail. A pair of fox ears nestled in his hair twitch when a crow sounds in the distance.

“Are you okay?” His voice sounds like the flames of a waning beach bonfire, the kind that curl toward the sky when Lance is heavy in his mother's lap and nearly asleep.

Pushing himself up Lance sits, rubbing at his eyes with dirty hands. “I wanna go home.”

“I can help you. My name is Shiro.” Holding out his hand Shiro smiles. “We're almost there. It's just a little farther.”

Lance nods, taking Shiro's hand and getting to his feet. He feels warm instantly and looks around. “Where'd the kitty go?”

“I'm sure he'll be back,” Shiro says with a smile. Lance nods after a moment of hesitation, following Shiro as they walk down the pathway and keeping an eye out for the fox.

Within a few minutes Shiro stops, crouching down beside Lance and taking his other hand in his own. “I cannot lead you any further. All you have to do is walk this path a little bit longer and you will find what you've lost.”

“Can't you come too?” Lance hazards a look toward the trees and takes a step closer to Shiro.

Shiro shakes his head. “I cannot. But you don't have to worry, you are safe.” Letting go of Lance's hands Shiro lifts a finger and traces something against the warm skin of Lance's forehead. “There, now nothing can harm you as long as you walk the path I have laid out.”

“But what about—”

Pressing a finger to Lance's lips Shiro smiles and shakes his head. “Go now, you have someone waiting.” Pressing his hand to Lance's back Shiro urges him forward.

Lance takes a few steps on his own but when he turns around Shiro is gone. A crow calls out from above and Lance jumps, the sound making him hurry down the path in front of him.

He nearly trips when the white fox darts out of the bushes and weaves between his legs. Lance laughs at the playful antics, watching the fox's eight tails bounce behind him.

Before he knows it Lance is stumbling into a clearing, the playground in front of him so much more familiar than the trees of the thick forest. “We made it,” he breathes happily, bending down to scoop the fox up into his arms. “We made it, Kitty!” He twirls around and laughs.

“Lance! I told you not to wander too far from the swings, come back over here.”

“Coming, Mama!” Holding the fox under its front legs Lance walks over to where his mother sits on a bench, the animal hanging limply and looking around with curious eyes.

“You're filthy!” Lance's mother lets out a laugh when she sees his dirty knees. “Did you roll around in th—Lance! What in heaven's name is that?”

Holding the fox up like in _The Lion King_ Lance grins at his mother. “I found a kitty!”

 

* * *

 

The kitsune dashes along the path, form melding into his human appearance as he vaults up into the trees. Shiro settles himself on a thick branch beside an overly large crow, plucking a stray leaf from his hair and letting it float to the ground.

Feathers rustle and the crow shifts forms, large black wings folding neatly against a young man's back. He takes the plum Shiro offers from his sleeve with a grunt. “What was that about?” Biting into it the tengu chews loudly, a breeze tugging at the feathers tucked in his dark hair. “I almost had 'em.”

“I could ask you the same thing.” With sharp claws Shiro slices off a piece of fruit and pops it into his mouth. “What do you gain by frightening a child?”

The tengu shrugs, finishing off his plum and licking the juice from his fingers. “It was annoyingly loud. As small as it was, it coulda made a decent snack.”

“He was a child. A lost one,” Shiro points out. He hands a piece of plum to the tengu and it gets devoured in seconds.

“You've got a bleedin' heart for those humans,” the tengu warns with a sideways glance. “It's gonna get you killed.”

Shiro looks out at the leaves dancing in the breeze. “He was only frightened.” Looking down at his hand Shiro remembers the small one tucked against his own, warm and so full of life. “All he needed was a simple nudge in the right direction.”

The tengu scoffs, black-tipped claws sinking into the branch as he leans back. He tilts his head and looks at Shiro. “Yeah well, now that you've gone and marked 'em I can't eat 'em, can I?”

Shiro shakes his head, a smile on his lips. “No, I don't suppose you can.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr - [[kuroshiroganee]](http://kuroshiroganee.tumblr.com/)


End file.
